Aston Villa v Birmingham City: Not 'just another game'

HERE we go again - the city will be divided, the passion from the stands will reach boiling point and both teams won’t shirk anything on the pitch in a bid to send their supporters home with the bragging rights.

HERE we go again - the city will be divided, the passion from the stands will reach boiling point and both teams won’t shirk anything on the pitch in a bid to send their supporters home with the bragging rights.

The Second City derby will never be classed as ‘just another game’.

However, I do consider this latest Blues-Villa encounter, the 108th league chapter to be precise, to be the most meekly-anticipated match-up between Birmingham’s big two of the Premier League era.

That’s not to say that the fixture will lack the intensity of its predecessors when referee Chris Foy’s whistle blows at 12pm at Villa Park today.

In fact, it’s a compliment to both clubs for how far they’ve progressed this season that this fixture is no longer considered the be all and end all of their respective campaigns.

For Martin O’Neill’s Villa, it’s no longer just about finishing above their less-decorated neighbours from Small Heath. While for Alex McLeish’s Blues, it’s no longer just about getting one over the arrogant so-and-sos from Aston while attempting to stave off relegation.

Established

They’ve both got bigger fish to fry.

Villa are looking to move to the next level and become part of Europe’s elite, while Blues are perfectly placed to finally become an established Premier League club. Gone are the days when a Villa victory would send Blues spiralling to relegation.

There’s now a mutual respect between the neighbours that probably stemmed from the September meeting at St Andrew’s. There was no hammering dished out by Villa and no sign of Blues just relying on that underdog spirit, moment of madness or goalkeeping gaffe. Instead, it was a closely-fought, evenly-matched encounter.

Despite narrowly winning, Villa would have sat up and taken serious notice. Blues were no longer this snarling, nasty neighbour going all out to upset the odds, they’re now a team to be taken seriously as a Premier League force.

We can’t even rely on boardroom battles or a USA V China billing to add extra spice off-the-field.

Forget the ‘pig in mud’ slur of 2007. The Carson Yeung regime are too busy finding their feet in English football and bickering with their predecessors to care about Villa, while the ever silent Randy Lerner couldn’t start a fight in a dodgy backstreet boozer and his internet-browsing sidekick, General Charles Krulak, appears to have learnt from his mistakes.

Even cross-city transfers have started to become the norm. Liam Ridgewell’s standing at Blues shows that Craig Gardner will eventually wonder what all the fuss was about.

The Second City derby will never lose its edge, in the same way the regular Liverpool, Manchester and London equivalents have never gone stale. But the fixture is now likely to be more about competitive Premier League football, rather than an occasional 90 minutes of mayhem.